Business Orange head Daniel Sutton in positive mood on eve of Business Awards finalists announcement

The finalists for the 2022 Orange Business Awards will be announced on Tuesday evening, heading towards the major awards dinner to be staged in August at the Remington on Forest Road.

Last year's awards were restricted to an online affair and that has led to Business Orange doing things differently for this year's awards dinner which will be restricted to the three finalists in each of the 13 categories.

This year, Business Orange was delighted to receive more than 200 nomination for the awards, with 80 submissions returned.

One of the more hotly contested categories this year will be Orange's Start-Up business of the year with Business Orange president Daniel Sutton stating the category had received 15 submissions, reflecting steady growth in the past 24 months.

Mr Sutton explained on average, each category usually received between eight or nine submissions for judging.

Judging is done outside the Orange business area.

"Two of the more popular categories this year were excellence in innovation and outstanding start-ups. Innovation recognises businesses that have obviously innovated in some way, introducing a new line of service or a way they provided their goods or service.

"Naturally through COVID there was a lot of people using innovation so that got some good nominations."

Mr Sutton said while start-ups weren't big business, they reflected the number of people who have moved to Orange from another area.

"We had quite a big migration out towards us through the COVID lockdowns and the people that were living and working in the cities, have come out, ran their own businesses, whether it's consulting or lifestyle, and they've opened it up in the Central West so it has resulted in an expansion in our region," he said.

"Our region, relatively speaking was a large benefactor when you compare yourself to the rest of the state, we weren't locked down anywhere near as long and effectively, people where forced to travel out our way because when the interstate boarders were closed and all the Sydney-siders were told to travel in NSW, Orange experienced an absolute boom in tourism."

Following that trend, submissions for the Business Innovation gong were also up on previous years.

"If anything, there's been a net increase in businesses in Orange through COVID. So that's excellent news," Mr Sutton said.

Mr Sutton said submissions for the Tourism and Events category had remained relatively stable.

"It's around the normal mark of around nine or 10, fairly consistent which was good because there was a bit of a fear there might have been a few that closed down."

The category finalist will be announced at the Greenhouse from 6pm on Tuesday, the event is open to businesses who have submitted an entry to the 2022 awards, and families and friends. Drinks and canapes will be served.

The gala dinner will held on August 20 at the Remington at what Mr Sutton described as good opportunity to network within the business region.

Category winners will then be eligible to contest next year's Western NSW Business Awards.

Categories for the 2022 Orange Business Awards Include:

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